The Trials
by VolumeofForgottenLore
Summary: A fic in which Reborn tries to make the family bond stronger by placing Tsuna in serious danger. Gokudera/Tsuna Everyone/Tsuna but is all one sided on everyone else part *heheheh*
1. The Beginning!

Tsuna stared at himself in the mirror. He turned left. He turned right. He did a full body spin, and then stopped. He just couldn't get it. He couldn't understand why Reborn would make him do this. There was no point to it! Haru could have easily done this. Kyoko-chan would have been perfect for the task, and Tsuna would be participating in the activities in a more…masculine way. But no! Here he was. Standing in front of his mirror. In a dress.

Tsuna let out another frustrated sigh. It wasn't just any ordinary dress either. Reborn could have had him wear some simple Alice in Wonderland blue dress, or hell even a little House on the Prairie get up!! But no. Of course Reborn, being the kind-hearted baby that he was, decides to make Tsuna dress up in gothic Lolita. It was a blood red dress that came down to just above his thighs. Under the dress were hundreds of ruffles, giving it body. The bodice was a heart-shaped corset, with black ribbons. The sleeves puffed up at the shoulders and came down to his wrists, held together by onyx cufflinks. He wore black stockings with lace trimmings that stopped just above his knee. Given the shortness of the dress and the stockings, a lot of leg was being shown. And on his feet were red buckle-shoes.

And if you thought that was enough, it wasn't. Reborn insisted that Tsuna wear a red ribbon around his neck. He then recruited Bianchi to place pigtails high above his head. They fell just below his ears in one giant curl. To tie up the pigtails were to long ribbons that trailed down to his knees. Bianchi was about to attack with lip gloss and nail polish but Tsuna finally distracted her by claiming her Romeo just ran by the window. In truth is was Lambo who probably was just defeated by Reborn (again) and jumped into his bazooka. Tsuna felt almost sorry for the 5 year old turned 15 when Bianchi took off after him with poison-dish spaghetti but then he looked at himself in the mirror and decided that since Lambo wasn't a part of the solution then he was part of the problem.

"I can't believe this." Tsuna was literally about to cry.

"Dame-Tsuna, stop crying. It's time!"

"GYAAAAH!" Tsuna jumped back and stared at his mentor. He was looking at his reflection when the full-body mirror (lord only knows why _masculine _Tsuna had a full body mirror in his room) flipped and revealed Reborn attached to the wood on the back.

"Tsuna, you should be able to detect me by now." Reborn jumped off the mirror and shook his head at Tsuna, Leon bobbing in agreement.

"I think that would be an insult to your credibility." Tsuna murmured.

Tsuna was promptly hit on the head with a Leon-sledge-hammer.

"GYAH!! Do you know how LONG it took for Bianchi to finish my hair?!!" Tsuna rounded on Reborn with a glint in his eye. "I swear if you ruined it…" Tsuna stalked up to the baby Mafioso. One would think in the girly outfit, the entire Mafia-boss approach-tactic wouldn't look formidable. It actually made Tsuna look like Misa from Death Note when she found LightxL. Beware the fangirl.

"Dame-Tsuna stop acti-"

"Stop. Calling. Me. That." Tsuna took a step forward on each word.

"Tsuna you need to-"

"I don't need to do anything. You should respect your boss."

Reborn didn't know whether to be A) Happy that Tsuna finally found his Mafioso Boss side. B) Upset that Tsuna dared to use this new found power on his tutor (who obviously taught him everything) or C) Be disturbed that Tsuna's new power awakened only after he was dressed in a Gothic Lolita outfit. But now wasn't the time to ponder these things.

"Tsuna. I'm sorry."

Reborn thought he heard something that sounded like 'Damn Straight' coming from the boy. "But anyway, we need to go to the site."

At this Tsuna deflated. He reluctantly let himself be herded out of the house and into the car.

"Dino-san!" Tsuna yelled when he saw his pseudo-brother at the wheel. The blond turned around to look at the young Mafioso. When he did, he wished for two things. The first, that he hadn't. His nose immediately began to leak, sending Tsuna into hysterics. The second, he then wished the young boy didn't think of him as his brother. He could deal with the age barrier thing later. After Romario cleaned up his nose and Reborn calmed Tsuna down, Dino set to driving. They were going to a special location Reborn had built especially for this night. The Bucking-Bronco smirked as he thought about _why _the special location was built.

Reborn had come up with an idea to increase the strength between the family. It was quite simple. There was an obstacle course along with many other challenges that the family would have to overcome in order to save Tsuna from imminent doom. He would basically be hanging by a bondage looking rope, over a mechanism that swung 5 foot wide blades back and forth above a pool full of sharks, piranhas, and a lion, above a boiling pot of water. The challenges would start off as a family thing. After the second challenge it would be moved to an individual bases to see who would become the boss's right hand man. Needless to say Gokudera was incensed with this development but only firmed his resolve when he saw Tsuna looking at him with hope in his eyes. All of the challenges were timed. Every half hour, Tsuna would be lowered half a foot down to the traps of doom. His legs would be 6 feet above the trap,. That gave them 6 hours minimum to complete every challenge. Then Tsuna would need to bend his leg or something if he wanted to keep them.

As Dino pulled up the car into the special location (which just happened to be Namimori middle school. He just drove around the city over and over to make it seem like they were really going to a _secret location_), he felt his brotherly instincts kick in. 'If any of them try and touch Tsuna…' He looked at Romario and they shared a look. It basically said 'Stay by my side so I can whip their asses if they try anything stupid'. Romario nodded. Dino wanted to participate, but since he was not part of the immediate family, he couldn't. And also Romario would have to follow him through the courses and though the subordinate was tough, he wasn't tough enough for what Reborn had in store.

"Alright Tsuna." Dino turned around and looked at his…little-brother. "You'll be fine." He smiled at the small grin Tsuna sent him. "I'll be there in case anything bad happens, despite what Reborn may say."

Tsuna was filled with adoration for Dino-san and thanked him with a big smile. He looked out the window and sighed with resignation. It was time.


	2. Person Most Likely Too

Tsuna looked at his school, or what was left of it.

"Hibari-san won't be too happy about this." Tsuna murmured as Reborn (who mysteriously reappeared) led him towards the obstacle course. It looked like someone dropped every single landscape imaginable on the Nami-middle grounds. Immediately before him was a door frame…just a door frame with a sign above it saying "A Family's Unity is the Greatest Strength…or someone will die."

"HIIYAA!! R-r-r-eborn! What's that supposed to mean?" Tsuna pointed at the sign while staring at the Arcobaleno who of course merely smirked.

"Ikuzo! Let's go Da-Tsuna." Reborn just stopped himself from saying Dame-Tsuna. Close call.

Tsuna followed Reborn through the doorframe and was greeted with a forest. At the edge of forest was a moped which Reborn promptly pushed Tsuna on. He jumped on the handles and started steering with his feet.

"This is a recreation of the Kilimanjaro forest." Reborn stated.

"Kill-a-man-jaro? Such a…deadly name." Tsuna jumped when he thought he heard something in the forest. They soon cam across a river. As they drove over a mysterious bridge, Tsuna noticed that the river was riddle with whirlpools.

"This is modeled after the journey Odysseus had to take to come home to his fair wife."

"B-but that's just a story! It's impossible to cross this in real life!!" The brunette flailed his arms at the water.

"That isn't important. And besides, you don't have to go through this."

Tsuna was about to yell something else when he realized that for the first time in his Reborn-clad life, he would not have to actually go through the challenges. He would just have to wait…over a death pit.

"Wait!! My life depends on these obstacles being doable!!"

Of course, Reborn just smirked. Next was a desert.

"This is a recreation of the dessert from the movie _Star Wars _in which the characters faced a monster in the sand that would slowly digest them."

Tsuna refrained from saying anything. They then passed a Glacier, modeled after an Antarctic glacier, a windy cliff overlooking a valley of sharp rocks, modeled after a dream Reborn had, and a volcano which was the inspiration of the entire event. The pot of boiling water that Tsuna would be dangling over would be boiled courtesy of the hot lava from Mt. St. Reborn!

"Ah look! It's everyone!" Tsuna cried as they approached the base of the volcano. There stood, Gokudera, Yamamoto, Lambo, I-pin, Kyoko, Haru, Hibari (and Hibird), Chrome, Fuuta, Bianchi, Dino (and Romario), Ryohei, Colonello and Basil.

"My saviors!" Tsuna jumped off the moped and began to run towards his friends when he remembered.

"Ne ne. Dame-Tsuna. Why are you wearing a dress?" Lambo stood there picking his nose.

"Lambo! Not nice!" I-pin chided Tsuna for being so crude, and would have attacked him if she weren't so distracted by Hibari-san!

"Jy-jyuudaime! Is that…a dress?" Gokudera went wide eyed as he stared at his boss. Tsuna looked absolutely fuc-ahem-cute!

"Waah! Tsuna-nii looks like he came out of a fairy tale!!" Fuuta exclaimed. "Would you like to know your cutenss rating?"

"NO!"

"Let's see." Fuuta began to rate Tsuna. Of course, the area around the boy loses gravity, so up went Tsuna!

'It's a perfect view!' Gokudera thought.

"Tsuna-nii ranks…number 2 on the 'Person most likely to be dressed in a dress' scale, number 8 on the 'Person who looks best in a dress' scale and number 1 on the 'Person most likely to be molested by surrounding spectators' scale'".

"What!" Tsuna tried to cover up his body with his hands, but in the process only lifted the dress up more, revealing black-lace drawers.

"Ts-Tsuna? Heh…heh." Yamamoto tried to laugh but even his carefree, innocent spirit could not deny the fact that Tsuna looked…interesting. A good type of interesting.

"Yamamoto, it's not what you think!" Tsuna tried to back up, but only succeeded in falling backward…completely lifting up the skirt.

"Ow.!"

"Jyuudaime!" On instinct, Gokudera rushed to his boss's side. However someone was there before he could even move.

Tsuna looked up to see who pulled him up and was shocked to see it was is Cloud-guardian.

"Che. Herbivore." Hibari stared down at the boy with amusement. This was definitely an interesting development. He had planned to tell the baby that he would not be participating in this stupid event, until he saw Herbivore-Tsunayoshi. Maybe he would stick around…just to prove to the lesser people that Tsuna was his…er…that he was the better man.

"Um, could you let go Hibari-san?" Tsuna tugged on his arm where the raven was holding him.

Hibari smirked and pulled Tsuna closer to him. "Only if I wish it, Tsuna-chan." Tsuna went red as he pulled away.

"Arigato, Hibari-san." Tsuna felt weird under the weight of the stares he was receiving. Did he really look that bad?

"Is it really, weird looking?" Tsuna looked at his 'family' to gauge their reactions. Instead he found bloody noses, and bishounen-fangirls.

"Uwah! Tsuna-san! You look so kawaii!!! Just like a costume Haru was planning to wear to the Pudding-Cake festival!!!" Haru ran up to Tsuna.

"Uh…thanks?" Okay. So Haru thought he looked cute. Now Kyoko-chan?

"Kyoko-chan?" Tsuna glanced at the girl who was standing by her brother.

"Um…well…" Oh no! Kyoko thought he looked hideous! "You look like…a doll Tsuna-kun!"

Tsuna let out a breath. 'But I don't know whether to be relieved she doesn't think I look like a freak…or offended that I don't.'

Tsuna looked at Chrome. "You-you look good Boss."

"EXTREME SAWADA-SAN! Did you dawn on that get-up to show your vulnerability to us, and place your extremely trusting trust in us?" Ryohei started punching the air. He was extremely excited for the competition Reboyama-sama told him about. He would definitely win. As long as he didn't get an extreme nosebleed from looking and the extremely cute Tsuna.

"Pay attention, Kora! You need to win this!" Colonello, being superior to Reborn as well as everyone else, was only slightly affected. His nose only dripped a little. And besides, he could moon over Tsuna later…if that is what he wanted to do.

Tsuna now turned to his closest friends. Yamamoto was blushing and scratching the back of his head, and Gokudera was glaring at everyone else. Tsuna thought it was because Gokudera was incensed that other people wanted to take his position. Actually, Gokudera didn't like how everyone dared looked at Tsuna like he was a piece of meat…and the fact that they thought that they could take his place at Tsuna's side. That position was his dammit!

Bianchi could care less about the child of Mama. As long as Reborn was there.

Let's see…the last person to talk about is…Basil. Now Basil, having being accustomed to Reborn's teaching methods since Iemitsu admired the Archobleno, had to go through a similar situation, though with less skin, lace, and ribbons involved. Iemetsu said it was to "Prove that you are a Mafioso-man, no matter what you wear. Real men wear PINK!!!" And he had to go through the course with the dress on. He didn't know which was worse; being put into a dress and then having to run a course, or being Lolitafied and then leered at.

"I understand Tsuna-san. I understand." Basil gave Tsuna a comforting pat on the back, but Gokudera growled at him, so he backed off.

"Listen! Now that you have all made Tsuna uncomfortable, it is time that we begin!" Reborn jumped to the front of the group and looked at everyone.

"I will now explain the rules of this competition." Silence reigned. "As you know, you have six hours to complete each mission. There are six missions. I will however be kind enough to tell you that between each mission, I will explain the next one. During this time I will stop the clock." He paused to hear praise for his act of kindness. When he received none, he continued. "The first mission is in the forest. There are 30 flags planted throughout it. Since this could take forever, this mission will be a timed one. You have 1 hour. The first 10 people with the most flags will move on. Am I understood?"

Reborn received nods. "Good. Now, you will all take this path to the edge of the forest. I will tie Tsuna up. When you see the Dying-Will-Flame go up into the sky, that is your cue to begin the first challenge. Dino will be accompanying you to make sure nothing happens before that time. Any questions?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"They look ready." Dino smiled. "Let's go!"

He started heading down the trail. "I'll be there soon Jyuudaime!" Tsuna smiled gratefully. "Haru will do her best!" Tsuna appreciated it. "Dame-Tsuna…give me candy!!" Tsuna wanted to cry. That was who was supposed to save him! He stared forlornly after his friends. It might be the last time he ever saw them.

"Let's go Dame-Tsu-"

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!!!!"


End file.
